Weight management and Black American women: Targeting social networks as a strategy to improve outcomes

University Of Illinois At Chicago, Chicago IL

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Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Abstract Obesity is linked with a variety of cancer types and is particularly prevalent among Black American (BA) women compared to other subgroups (57.2 5% for BAs). In weight management interventions, BA participants lose less weight than non-Hispanic whites. Obesity interventions co-created with community stakeholders show promise, but are difficult to bring to scale. A novel approach to treatment response involves engaging intervention participants as change agents. Our pilot data reflect that providing current participants with the skills to share intervention messages with their social networks (e.g., family, friends) results in greater personal health effects relative to treating them as passive recipients. Participant-driven dissemination of evidence- based information may also lead to network- and population-level health effects. These “spill-over effects” may benefit other BA women with obesity in participants’ networks, given BA women’s highly homogeneous networks and BA cultural values that prioritize social connectedness and community mobilization. We are unaware of research examining: (1) if training intervention participants as change agents augments interventions’ effects on obesity and associated lifestyle behaviors; and, (2) how non-participant network members may benefit from interventions through participant-driven dissemination. Molina tested a navigation social network evidence-based intervention (Nav-SN) that provided BA women with skills to share intervention messages (R21CA215252). Fitzgibbon and colleagues developed an evidence-based Mediterranean Diet weight management intervention designed for BA women (MedDiet-WL, R01HL129153). Our participant advisory board and our team successfully integrated and implemented Nav-SN with the Med Diet-WL intervention. We propose three specific aims: Aim 1. Conduct a 6-month (24-session) RCT comparing MedDiet-WL alone to MedDiet-SN among 268 BA women with obesity. We hypothesize that: 1) Participants in MedDiet-SN will show improvements in bodyweight/BMI, and body composition compared to MedDiet-WL at post-intervention (6-months); Aim 2. Use social network methods to compare differences in weight management information dissemination by 268 women randomized to MedDiet-WL and MedDiet-SN. We hypothesize that women in MedDiet-SN will share information to more network members compared to MedDiet-WL women. Aim 3. Use social network methods to compare MedDiet-SN and MedDiet-WL in 268 social network members. We hypothesize that MedDiet-SN network members will show, greater improvements in BMI, body fat, diet, and physical activity than MedDiet-WL network members at 6 months.